The present invention relates to a water ski, and has particular reference to the configuration of the water-engaging surfaces of the ski.
Conventional water skis typically are elongated boardlike members having flat, or substantially flat bottom sides for planning on the surface of the water as the skier is towed at high speed in a well-known manner. Conventional variations in bottom design include different arrangements of longitudinal grooves, some sufficiently wide to make the bottom substantially concave, and the provision of stabilizing rudder-like fins adjacent the aft ends. Less typical design variations include special configurations of the ends of skis, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,061,846 and 3,599,259.
The earlier of these two patents discloses a basically conventional ski configuration with a skeg and a special front tip shape. The later patent discloses a ski which has wedge-shaped fore and aft steps for supporting the mid section of the ski above the surface of the water, during high-speed skiing. Various shapes for the undersides of the steps are disclosed, including concavely curved, convexly curved, ribbed, and V-shaped steps.
Important objectives of the various ski designs that have been proposed and used include ease of getting up on the skis and into a planing condition, ease of control, softness of ride and reduction of impacts after jumps and in choppy water, and reduction of the resistance to passage of the ski through the water. The several ski configurations that now are available have been sucessful to varying degrees in accomplishing these objectives.